“Barrack Obama. He would be the one I would aspire to have a conversation with, to be enlightened and to thank him for his contribution to history.” — Denise Gray, LG Chem Michigan
“My husband. He is the most on-point person I know. He never puts off for tomorrow what he could do today. He gets more out of a day than probably anyone that I know. I admire that. That is not me. I’ll get deterred and go from one thing to another. I get it done, but it might look more like sausage-making with me.” — Juanita Powell Baranco, Mercedes-Benz of Buckhead and Mercedes-Benz of Covington
“Nikola Tesla — he was the inventor. He was a humanist, not only an inventor. That, to me, is a hero.” — Suzana Cizmic, Bosch
“I lost my mom earlier this year. She’s the one who always told me you can do anything. She really encouraged me to pursue my studies and focus on math and sciences. She was always taking me on educational field trips to science centers and to the zoo and Science Day at Cedar Point. She was always there pushing me.” — Jennifer Wahnschaff, Continental
“Elizabeth Garrett Anderson. She was the first female physician and surgeon in Great Britain. She was the first female to be on a hospital board, co-founded the first hospital staffed by women and not only that, she was the first female mayor in Great Britain. She was a very strong activist, vying for female rights to vote. She achieved all this in the 1800s.” — Zobeida Guiterrez, Valeo
“Martin Luther King Jr. and Congressman John Lewis. I think both exemplified the best that America has to offer, in terms of individuals who are committed to making this country better, to help it live up to its ideal, and they were willing to sacrifice themselves in order to do it. And that just gives me inspiration to do all of the things that I do every day.” — Sandra Phillips Rogers, Toyota Motor North America
“Marie Curie, French Nobel Prize winner/physicist. Every time it’s tough as a woman in high-tech, I remind myself she did not have it easy. Nelson Mandela; I would love to have dinner with him if it were possible. And Andy Grove, one of the Intel founders.” — Aicha Evans, Zoox
“My dad is my hero. He was kind of an unsung hero. He died in 2011. He and my mom both really instilled a work ethic in me and that’s just something that I see is so rare now. I try really hard to instill this into my own kids. But he was just an unsung hero, just completely selfless and did everything for his family. He was the type of guy that I don’t think ever took a sick day in his life. Whatever success I have is because I had that work ethic at a very, very young age.” — Kelly Bysouth, International Automotive Components Group
“My mom grew up in Collins, Miss., this teeny town south of Jackson. She had me very young. She had just turned 18 two weeks earlier. She’s this beautiful, strong woman who poured every ounce of love and every hope and dream she had into me. She was a makeup artist and worked in the fashion industry, but more than anything, she was this cheerleader-in-chief. Whatever was going on she’d be my first call. Even though we didn’t live in the same place, she’d be, like, ‘What time’s your fight? What are you going to wear?’ I really am getting this chance to live out some of her dreams.” — Tekedra Mawakana, Waymo
“My mom is Japanese, and she came to a new country and she didn’t know the language and she didn’t know the culture. She adapted to all that and started a business. She was able to pay for the college tuition for my brother and me. All of that, with her limited education and resilience and ability to do that, I just think it’s remarkable.” — Elizabeth Umberson, ZF North America
“It’s a tie. My father worked incredibly hard to be a master of his craft. He’s an atomic physicist who took a huge leap leaving a small village in Greece to come to the United States. As for my mom, she’s this powerhouse lawyer who never let anybody tell her she couldn’t do something. She’s the hardest worker I know and most generous person I’ve ever met.” — Lia Theodosiou-Pisanelli, Aurora Innovation
“When I think about a hero — especially during this COVID time — I think about the health care workers, the janitors, everybody who’s sacrificing themselves to take care of everybody. And how incredibly stressful that has to be. How they just give everything so selflessly.” — Susan Sheffield, GM Financial
“I have always been intrigued by Sir Winston Churchill. He is a controversial figure, but he led England through a very tough war. He is a strong character with a lot of integrity and vision for his country. But he is not a man without flaws as well, especially in his personal life.” — Christina Tsai, Tenneco
“My hero of the moment is probably Greta Thunberg, the teenage climate activist, just because here’s a person who has overcome a lot of personal challenges and difficulties and manages to be effective on the world stage in such a good way, resisting all of the efforts by people to put her in a box of one kind or another.” — Mary Nichols, California Air Resources Board